In the original building there was a basement nearly at the ground level and a lofty upper floor with an open roof. The exterior was plain. It had a low plinth, but no pilaster strips, save that at the end of the east wall there is a sort of pilaster 6 feet broad by 1 foot deep. On the south face a string of half-hexagonal section runs a little above the level of the first floor, and on the east and west faces, a little higher up, are sets-off of 5 inches. The upper story is marked by a similar set-off all round. The north, south, and west walls at the base are 7 feet 6 inches thick, and above it 5 feet. The east wall, containing the staircase, is 9 feet 6 inches thick. Two additions have been made, which much affect the ground plan. On the west, the hollow angle of the
has been filled up by a building 11 feet broad by 24 feet long, which is carried up to the top, and enters partly into the composition of a north-west turret. The wall of this building is only 3 feet thick. The corresponding hollow angle on the east face is also filled up by a mass of masonry 9 feet thick, but which goes no higher than the first floor. It contains a cell, the porter’s prison, and a passage leading from the main gate to the well-stair of the keep. The porter’s prison is barrel-vaulted, is not bonded into the keep, and is probably very late Norman. There is in the keep wall, partly seen in the vault, a loop or window, though there is no indication inside from whence it opened.
The existing keep is composed of a basement and three floors. At present the basement chamber is entered by a door in the north wall from the inner ward, the first and other floors by a well-stair in the east angle, entered from the main gate. The basement is three steps below the ground level. It is 31 feet north and south and 14 feet 5 inches wide. It has a high-pointed vault, a loop in the south or outer end, and in the north end a loop, and above it a window, and by their side the door from the inner ward. The window recess is slightly pointed, that of the door more decidedly so, but the exterior facing of both door and window is late Perpendicular, four-centred in a flat head. In the side walls, at their north end, on each side is a Norman arcade of two arches, plain and shallow, springing from plain detached columns with fluted and cushion capitals, the whole resting on a low bench. The arcades begin a foot from the north wall, and the arches are full centred, but of unequal span, 4 feet 3 inches and 5 feet 11 inches. The western arcade has been walled up and is only partially seen. On the east side, at the southern arch, the column is gone, and the lower half of its nook is occupied by a sort of altar of square stones, having a large flat stone on its top. The whole work is rude. There are no drips or hood mouldings, and a mere attempt at an incised ornament. The arcade is recessed about a foot. In the east wall, near its south end, are two square-headed doors of 2 feet opening and 7 feet 6 inches apart. Each opens into a passage 3 feet 7 inches long and 2 feet 7 inches broad, and these end in, and are connected by, a cross gallery 12 feet long and 2 feet 6 inches broad. These passages are lined with ashlar and are 6 feet 7 inches high, and flat-topped. The roof is formed of rubble, wedged tight and plastered. Also, each doorway has a rebate and bar-hole, showing that the door opened inwards, and was fastened on the inner side or from the passage, into which, however, there was no other way. It appears also that the great chamber was formerly divided by a cross wall, so placed that one of these doors opened into each chamber, and a step in the rubble vaulting shows where this wall crossed, and that there was a slight difference in the height of the vault on its two faces. The southern of the two doorways has been mutilated and a Norman pier has been inserted, but this seems modern, and a clumsy device to support the roof. It is difficult to understand for what purpose this very curious passage was constructed. It afforded a way from the outer to the inner room, but this does not account for the position of the bar-holes. Moreover, as regards the large room, the arcade seems strangely out of place. It was certainly confined to two arches on each side; and as the room lies north and south, it could scarcely have been a chapel, neither is it likely that it was a room of state. The wall seems at one time to have been lined with ashlar, and there are ashlar bands in the vault, a part of which is built of hammer-dressed stone, and part of very ordinary rubble. The arcade and probably the substance of the building are rather early Norman, and the vault and north wall seem additions in the early English period. This chamber has no communication with the additions either upon the east or the west front.
The first floor is exactly above the basement, and measures 30 feet by 17 feet 6 inches. In its south end is a Tudor window, no doubt replacing a Norman loop; and in its north end are two windows in Tudor recesses, and between them a Tudor fireplace. In the west wall, north end, a round-headed door opens into a side-chamber 8 feet by 13 feet, vaulted, but with a timber floor, having windows to the north and west, and in its east or keep side two round-headed recesses of 3 feet 8 inches opening, and 3 feet deep. In the south end of this room a narrow passage leads into a garderobe chamber, 7 feet 6 inches by 5 feet, with a loop to the west. Between the two rooms is a block of masonry which contains the shafts of the garderobes from the upper story. In the other or south end of the west side of the main room, a lofty full-centred arch of 5 feet 10 inches opening, is the mouth of a vaulted lobby, 13 feet 7 inches long; at first 5 feet 10 inches wide, and then reduced to 3 feet 2 inches. This opens upon the south curtain, west of the keep. In the south wall of the lobby is a small round-headed window in a plain recess, and outside, flanked with nook-shafts, the only ornamented Norman window in the keep. Opposite, in the east wall, is a door, of 4 feet 3 inches opening, which leads into a vaulted and groined chamber, 8 feet square, with a loop to the south, and to the east a short passage 4 feet wide, which opens upon the south curtain and leads to the upper floor of the gatehouse. In the north wall of the chamber is the head of a straight staircase, which threads the east wall of the keep, and was the original entrance from the ground level to the first floor. The staircase is of ashlar, barrel-vaulted, and fifteen steps are still to be seen. Returning to the main chamber, there remains to be noticed a door at the north end of the east wall, which opens into a well-stair, and from it by an outer door into what was the first floor of the gatehouse. This well-stair occupies the north-east angle of the keep. It is entered by a vaulted rising passage in the east wall from the main gate at the ground level, and the staircase rises to the ramparts, opening upon the first and two upper floors. At present its door and window openings are Tudor, but the staircase itself is probably much older. It is evident that here was the original entrance to the keep, as at Chepstow and Carlisle, whence a straight stair led up the centre of the wall to the first floor; but when the lower part of the well-stair was inserted, the straight stair was walled up, and so remains. At Chepstow and Carlisle, besides the staircase, there was a door which gave entrance to the basement floor. This could not have been the case here, for it would have cut the arcade. The cill of the south-east door shows the floor of the first floor chamber to have been slightly raised, which was, no doubt, done when the vaulting was inserted. There are two square holes in the floor, intended to give air to the main room below, and probably late insertions. This story was 12 feet 6 inches high. From it seventeen steps in the well-staircase lead to a Tudor door into the second floor.
LUDLOW KEEP.
FIRST FLOOR.
Wyman & Sons, Gᵗ. Queen Sᵗ. London.
- State Room.
- Bedroom and Garderrobe.
- Vaulted Lobby.
- Vaulted and Groined Lobby.
- Old Staircase.
The second floor is of the same dimensions with the first. In its south wall is a Tudor window, no doubt replacing one of Norman date; and in the north wall two windows, square-headed, but in round-headed though not Norman recesses. In the east wall, besides the staircase door, is a Tudor fireplace, possibly only refaced in that style. This wall has been much altered and patched, and the fireplace is probably an insertion. In the west wall, at its north end, a door opens into a lateral chamber, above that appended to the first floor, and in it are two garderobes. It has a square-headed loop to the north and three to the west, the central one in a round-headed recess. On a level with this chamber, and probably opening from it, is a small chamber over the west lobby. This has a loop to the west, but is not accessible. There is a similar chamber over the east lobby, but how entered does not appear. This second floor is 11 feet 10 inches high, and from it nineteen steps ascend to the floor above.